Anne Hathaway

"Quite frankly, I didn't become an actor to become a movie star. I have never dreamed about being the most famous person on the planet. I just want to do really good work." - Anne Hathaway

Among Hollywood's ever hot-and-cold crowd of 20-something-year-old performers, Anne Hathaway is one of most well-rounded actresses in the bunch, and her versatility shines through in her wide-ranging demographic appeal. Once pegged as a family-friendly actress for her roles in The Princess Diaries films, she's kept the kids on her side with Ella Enchanted and Alice in Wonderland, won the mainstream crowd over with breezy entertainment in Get Smart and Bride Wars and made Oscar stand up and take notice with her performances in Rachel Getting Married and Brokeback Mountain. And people took notice in a very different way when she bared her skin in Love and Other Drugs.

She's hosted the Oscars with James Franco and the Nobel Peace Prize Contest with Denzel Washington, but perhaps most importantly she snuck into every adolescent boy's dreams after starring as Catwoman in Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight Rises.

SEX APPEAL

For someone who once considered becoming a nun, the lovely Anne Hathaway is quite a liberated lady. An interest in paintings in childhood familiarized her with nudes, and since she considers acting to be an art form, she doesn't say no to taking it all off on film. In a curious twist, she has more reservations about posing for a temperature-rising magazine spread, because she feels that lacks artistic value. Anne Hathaway's high artistic standards also extend to her nightlife, where she likes to seek out the best in music and dance. For this, she relies on her faithful crew of gay pals to take her out to the latest and greatest artistic dance clubs.

Anne Hathaway likes the simple things when it comes to dating. That means dressing comfortably, watching some good art, and just sharing some solid romantic chemistry. She felt a lot of this with Raffaello Follieri, a real estate guru who was her companion for four years. Early on, it was bliss and they enjoyed a rule of never spending more than two weeks apart, but things crumbled when in 2008 he was implicated in a multi-million dollar fraud involving his charitable organization. Though Anne Hathaway was not directly related to any criminal activities, the realization that her boyfriend was a suspected criminal did not sit well with her. She did heal, though, and has now married fellow New York-born actor Adam Shulman.

SUCCESS

There was a time when Anne Hathaway was seen by critics and audiences as the flavor of the month for wholesome entertainment. She can thank the Disney-funded Princess Diaries films for painting her with that brush. While these family films did jump-start her career, they have not come to define her. Through her own efforts, Anne Hathaway increased her stock with the movie-going masses with the one-two punch of Brokeback Mountain and her Oscar-nominated turn in Rachel Getting Married, where her propensity for playing cowboy games with Jake Gyllenhaal and coping with the effects of alcoholism showed that she meant business.

Luckily for Anne Hathaway, the new label of "serious actress" hasn't taken away her right to be versatile or to have a good time on screen. As moviegoers, we can believe her in anything, whether she's spying it up with Steve Carell in Get Smart, surviving Meryl Streep's fashion insanity in The Devil Wears Prada, or getting wacky with Johnny Depp in Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland. Her star power in Hollywood was fully legitimized when she was asked to host the 2011 Oscars along with James Franco.

But as actress first and a movie star second, Anne Hathaway's ultimate goal is just to make quality films, and if things keep going her way, she'll have plenty of opportunities to do exactly that.

Anne Hathaway Biography

Early on, Anne Hathaway's core religious values in Catholicism were guiding her toward a future filled with religious faith rather than Hollywood fame. Though her mother, Kate McCauley, was an actress, and Anne Hathaway enjoyed playing dress-up and imagining herself as various creative characters, her first career ambition was to become a nun. This career path changed abruptly at 15 when she realized that her religious background would put her at odds with her brother, who was gay. Based on that, Anne Hathaway chose acting instead, and movie audiences would come to be all the better for it.

At New Jersey's Millburn High School, Anne Hathaway got her acting feet wet in various school productions, including Once Upon a Mattress, which saw her nominated for a Paper Mill Playhouse Rising Star Award in the category of Best Performance by a High School Actress. She also enjoyed the added bonus of training at New York's highly respected Barrow Group Theater Company. Anne Hathaway's acting highs were matched by the lows of a difficult battle with depression. Through her own strength, she eventually conquered the self-loathing and anxiety that came from her darker moments, and pushed forward to begin the career that she would come to love.

Anne Hathaway Stars In The Princess Diaries And Brokeback Mountain

Mere days after performing with her high school chorus at Carnegie Hall, Anne Hathaway was cast in the new FOX series, Get Real, in 1999. The series was a bust and she went on to enroll at New York University, but an audition came her way for 2001's The Princess Diaries. According to director Garry Marshall, she wiped out during the audition and immediately got the part. Anne Hathaway remembers the story differently, but irregardless, she won the role of an unpopular girl who learns that she is, in fact, royalty. The plot connected well with its royalty-seeking tween audience, making the Disney film a hit and spawning an equally-successful sequel in 2004.

While Anne Hathaway wasn't outwardly disappointed that the Princess Diaries films -- and to a lesser degree 2004's Ella Enchanted -- had branded her as an actress for family movies, she wanted to show that she could do more. As such, she began to play totally against the type, first as a drug and sex-chasing teen in the steamy Havoc, which never saw a theatrical release but picked up a significant following on DVD for obvious reasons (read: nudity). Anne Hathaway had more success in the serious role of playing the struggling wife to cowboy Jake Gyllenhaal in Brokeback Mountain, which was instrumental in getting her cast opposite her screen hero, Meryl Streep, in The Devil Wears Prada. While the role of assistant to a fashion boss from hell didn't win her any goodwill from Vogue editor Anna Wintour (who inspired the film), the rest of Hollywood, including Meryl Streep, was impressed with her skills.

Anne Hathaway Stars In Get Smart And Rachel Getting Married

After gamely playing Jane Austen in 2007's Becoming Jane, Anne Hathaway bought a ticket aboard the Hollywood remake train for the big-screen reboot of the beloved TV series, Get Smart. As Agent 99, the no-nonsense special agent who is paired up with the bumbling Maxwell Smart (Steve Carell), she prevented world destruction and got to give The Rock a boot to the head. The film was a well-received summer blockbuster and by the fall, all eyes were on Anne Hathaway's next movie, Rachel Getting Married. As an emotionally-fractured recovering alcoholic in town for her sister's wedding, Anne Hathaway showed a side of her acting that was honest and gutsy. The critical kudos for her performance were followed by Hathaway's first Oscar nomination for Best Actress.

After battling with Kate Hudson in the 2009 wedding comedy Bride Wars, Anne Hathaway took on a slate of films. In March 2010, Hathaway entered the weird world of Tim Burton to play The White Queen to Johnny Depp's The Mad Hatter in Alice in Wonderland and then had a reunion with her Princess Diaries director, Gary Marshall, for Valentine's Day, which featured the ensemble cast of Ashton Kutcher, Patrick Dempsey, Julia Roberts, Bradley Cooper, and Jennifer Garner.

Anne Hathaway Gets Naked (And Co-Hosts The Oscars)

Anne Hathaway's sex appeal soared sky-high in 2011 when the Viagra-themed, skin-filled drama Love and Other Drugs opposite Jake Gyllenhaal landed her a Golden Globe nomination for Best Performance. She also made No. 9 on AskMen's Top 99 Most Desirable Women 2011. She also proved that stage fright isn't an issue for the young actress, taking on the daunting task of hosting the Oscars (alongside James Franco), a shrewd career move for one of Hollywood's hottest A-listers. The gig marked Hathaway's first appearance onstage at the Oscars, but if life keeps going her way, it certainly won’t be her last.

Anne's latest success was her role as Catwoman in director Christopher Nolan's third Batman film, The Dark Knight Rises, with Christian Bale and Morgan Freeman. She certainly tickled our fancy in her skin-tight leather get up and will continue to entertain us with her next scheduled release, Les Misérables, in which she stars alongside Hugh Jackman and Russel Crowe.